


Chalk Circles

by r0ck_y0ur_s0ul



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-01
Updated: 2013-03-01
Packaged: 2017-12-03 23:43:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/703998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/r0ck_y0ur_s0ul/pseuds/r0ck_y0ur_s0ul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peeta shares with Katniss a way he learned to cope with his pain.  Post end of Mockingjay/pre-Epilogue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chalk Circles

**Author's Note:**

> Just something short that came to my mind. Wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it.

“Katniss…”

He’d been trying to reach her for weeks. Outside of the exchange they’d had while he’d been planting the primrose bushes they’d not spoken. Most mornings Sae would find him sitting on her front porch, having spent the majority of his nighttime hours listening to her scream through her horrible nightmares. He felt helpless and consumed in his inability to reach her, to bring her back, to make her the Katniss he knew she could be again. He’d spent hours on the phone trying to convince Dr. Aurelius that the best use of their time would be to spend it trying to find a way to bring her back…to him, to life. Dr. Aurelius, however, couldn’t help someone who didn’t want help. He knew that but that hadn’t stopped him from breaking a few bowls in his kitchen after one of their conversations had, yet again, ended with the doctor reminding him of that.

“She’s out of bed today,” Sae declared from the kitchen as he bent at his knees before her, gazing into her face and willing her to speak. “She’s not been out of bed in weeks.”

“I know,” he nodded as he placed a hand on the two she had rested in her lap. “That’s really good, Katniss,” he whispered as he tried to force a smile but failed. He missed his friend, the girl he’d been in love with for so long he didn’t know how not to love her. Even when he was deeply lost in his own head, tortured by the manufactured memories he’d been forced to believe were real he still knew he loved her. He always would, but seeing her so unlike any other version of her that he’d ever seen before was torture all on its own. She was sitting upright, staring back at him, but her eyes were void of any real life and she was about as far away as anybody could be. He missed her so much that it had begun to cause him physical pain. She’d been the reason he’d fought so hard to reclaim who he’d once thought he’d lost. He wanted so desperately to be her reason.

“I brought you something,” he announced as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a piece of chalk he’d deliberately plucked from his art supplies the night before.

“When I first got back to the Capital after…” he paused as he rolled the chalk around in his hand. “I was pretty sick. I didn’t know who I really was anymore; I didn’t know who I could trust. I didn’t want anybody to come near me. So many people had been part of changing me…having people touch me would set me off. I found myself restrained a lot. People were afraid of me,” he recalled softly.

“I was afraid of me,” he whispered. “I needed to find a place where I could feel safe, feel like me again. I needed a place that was just mine. And Dr. Aurelius suggested this,” he held up the piece of chalk. Katniss blinked as her eyes locked on the object he held in his fingers.

“With this I could create a place that was just mine, no matter where I was or who I was with,” he explained. “It was my space and my space alone, and it was safe. I could pretend that nothing bad had ever happened and that I everyone I loved was just as safe as I was.”

Lowering his hand to the hardwood floor at Katniss’ feet he drew a circle around himself. He’d spent hours sitting in his circles when he’d been in the Capital. He’d drawn himself into one every single time he’d visited with Dr. Aurelius. The comfort that had come with being in his circle had been the only thing that had made him feel safe enough to talk, to heal.

“I want you to find a place that is just yours,” he declared as he folded the piece of chalk into one of her hands. “Where nothing bad has ever happened and where everyone you love is safe.”

“And after you feel safe in that place, if you want…I would really like to hear about it,” he finished quietly. 

As he went to stand he felt the familiar warmth of her fingers curl around his right wrist. Slowly she slipped from her chair and joined him on the floor. A heavy breath passed through her lips as she lowered a shaky hand to the wood floor. He watched as she slowly enclosed herself in her own safe circle, just as he had hoped she would when he had decided to share this with her. Setting the chalk to the side she folded her hands into her lap once more as she locked her eyes on him.

“She is here in my circle with me,” she muttered, her voice weak from lack of use. He nodded his agreement as he crossed his legs and allowed his own fingers to come to rest just outside the white line barrier she’d drawn.

“She can be.”

They sat quietly for several moments before her fingers gently rubbed away a small portion of the chalk line. Slowly her fingers slipped outside of the circle and found his once more. Her eyes fluttered closed for as she slid his hands across the floor, his palms flat as they came to rest inside her circle. Reaching for the chalk once more she re-closed the circle, the line stopping at his wrists.

“You’re in my circle, too,” she declared softly. The corners of his lips turned up in a gentle smile as he let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding in for years.

“You were always in mine,” he confessed.


End file.
